TodayPowerage stands tall in the AC/DC catalogue and is a favourite among AC/DC fans and rock musicians the world over, including Eddie Van Halen and Keith Richards. Aside from Bon Scott hitting his peak in his lyric writing, it also features some of the grooviest basslines AC/DC ever recorded, particularly on songs such as ‘Gimme A Bullet’, ‘Down Payment Blues’ and ‘Gone Shootin’’.To my ears (and the ears of many musicians who have contacted me about it over the years), there is a perceptible difference from later AC/DC albums on which Cliff Williams plays bass, which is probably one reason why Powerage, recorded in early 1978 in Sydney, Australia, still sounds so special.As one musician who shall remain nameless put it: ‘I don't care what AC/DC says, that's George Young playing bass on Powerage. The bass playing on “Gimme a Bullet” is outstanding. I like Cliff but George is in a different class. I love George's bass playing: very similar style to Andy Fraser from Free, slippery and groovy. Check out the studio version of “High Voltage”: it sits in a different place in the groove; very clever playing. Unless Cliff just learned George’s bass line – but I'd doubt it, as he never played it like that again.’But to a corps of hardened AC/DC fans there is no argument to be had: it was Cliff on Powerage and that's the end of the matter.

​In his autobiography Dog Eat Dog, former AC/DC manager Michael Browning claims the British-born Williams, who was having work-visa issues at the time, ‘reached Alberts [Studios in Sydney, Australia,] in January 1978, just in time for the recording sessions… it was his first record with the band and he loved playing on it’.Mark Opitz, who engineered the album, wrote in his own autobiography, Sophisto-Punk, that Williams ‘wasn’t there for the first month of Powerage… so Georgeplayed bass during rehearsals’.Yet the man who made way for Williams the year before, Mark Evans, told me a markedly different story when I wrote my 2013 book, The Youngs: ‘My understanding of the situation is that George played bass on the whole album.’

George Young and Phil Rudd during Powerage rehearsals, 1978. Credit: Jon O'Rourke

​In an interview with Bass Player, Williams rubbished the allegation (and talk Evans himself may have played on some of Powerage): ‘Not at all, and Mark was long gone at that point… I finally got my [Australian] visa, it was all good, and we did the album.’In support of Williams, it’s well established that heavy rehearsals were going on for AC/DC’s fifth Australian studio album, a few weeks’ worth.

‘Mark [Evans] was long gone at that point… I finally got my [Australian] visa, it was all good and we did the album.'– Cliff Williams​The truth, however, is Evans was hardly ‘long gone’ from Alberts. Evans was actually recording with Finch (aka Contraband) right in the adjacent studio to where AC/DC were rehearsing Powerage.Evans remembered all his gear being set up and ‘I’d come in the next day with my white bass [which would be] sitting up, [I’d] pick it up, and the tuning would be different on it.’

​Owen Orford, lead singer of Contraband, confirms ‘it was January ’78’ and the recording took place ‘opposite George and Harry [Vanda]’s studio’.Evans said he had a good idea who was using his bass.‘“I know.” So I’d go in next door and [I’d say], “Hey George, did you borrow my bass?’” [And he responded:] “Oh yeah, we did some bass tracks and we came and borrowed your bass.” I would have met Cliff between the recording of Powerage and Highway To Hell. From my memory, the sessions for [Powerage], in the back of my mind, I don’t [think] Cliff was in town for that or much of that.’

​George certainly wasn’t afraid to throw his weight around in the studio as a bass player, as Rob Bailey, AC/DC’s bass player who was supplanted by George during the recording of AC/DC’s first album, High Voltage, and Evans, who had to stand by as George did some bass parts on albums he worked on, will both attest.It's now well established that AC/DC album credits don't always tell the full story of who played on the recordings and AC/DC already had a history of using early monitor mixes in final recordings, such as the 1975 single ‘High Voltage’, on which George’s bass is highly distinctive.

Australian press announces the hiring of Cliff Williams, 1977

​Explains Tristin Norwell, a London-based record producer and composer who got his start at Alberts: ‘Monitor mixes are often mono, never more than stereo. In a rehearsal room in the 1970s you may have had a cheap little ¼ inch recorder taking a stereo mix of the monitor board, using all the mics in the room. It’s a rough ’n’ ready capture – usually dreadful – of a live rehearsal session. In proper recording sessions a monitor mix is usually a version of the song “as it stands”. Traditionally you have a recording day, and then a day mixing all the tracks – instruments – together to create a final mix. This stereo mix then gets mastered by another boffin.

‘From my memory, the sessions for [Powerage], in the back of my mind, I don’t [think] Cliff was in town for that or much of that.’– Mark Evans​‘However, monitor mixes from recording sessions in proper studios are often very successful and hard to beat – they are often an amalgam of the energy and all the ideas firing around the room, at the inception of the recording. The endless debate is how much you lose of this “energy” by spending lots of time on a final mix – the finessed, overly processed, overly considered stage. There are many, many final mixes that have been beaten by a rock-solid vibey monitor mix, usually as they are instinctive and fresh-sounding.’

Phil Rudd recording Powerage. Credit: Jon O'Rourke

Is there any reason to think George wouldn’t stand in for Williams, a relatively new and untested (at least in Albert Studios) bass player who couldn’t even get into Australia because of visa problems at a time when AC/DC was under serious pressure from Atlantic Records to come up with a hit record? Nothing less than AC/DC's survival as a recording act was at stake.Then again, Williams may well be right. But if he says he recorded bass tracks for all of the songs on Powerage, does that also mean they were actually used on the final album? Powerage was a critical album for AC/DC. The future of the Young family business – AC/DC itself – was at risk if the album failed to sell, as well as a substantial portion of George’s future income from producer royalties. Evans’s claim appears at least plausible.

‘I wouldn't compare my bass playing to George [Young]. I'm a sort of cut-down version of George.'– Mark Evans​Furthermore, as Evans said to me back in 2013, ‘A real advantage of the way [AC/DC] used to record is the fact that we used to record as a band [two guitars, bass and drums]… the only thing that was added on was [Bon’s] vocals and [Angus’s] solos, guitar solos.’George was in a different league to him as a musician.‘I wouldn’t compare my bass playing to George. I’m sort of like a cut-down version of George.’

Powerage sessions, 1978. George Young in foreground. Credit: Jon O'Rourke

​For what it's worth, photographs of the Powerage sessions from that Australian summer of ’78, taken by then-music journalist Jon O’Rourke, clearly show George playing bass with Angus Young, Malcolm Young and Phil Rudd in the studio. Only Bon is missing. To my knowledge, no known photos exist of Cliff recording the album. The only other photos of the sessions, taken by Andrew Paschalidis during the later recording of the single ‘Rock 'N' Roll Damnation’, also fail to show Cliff being there. Paschalidis even states that George was playing bass when he arrived at the studio. George, rhythm guitarist of The Easybeats, writer of classics ‘Friday On My Mind’ and ‘Evie’, was one of the best bass players of his time, who’d already played on early albums by the band, including 1977’s seminal Let There Be Rock.

Harry Vanda during the recording of Powerage. Jon O'Rourke in the background. Credit: Jon O'Rourke

​Yes, Let There Be Rock. Evans admitted in 1998: ‘George is on some of the songs and I’m on others. Sometimes I can’t tell who’s playing what because I ended up playing bass very similar to George, but I played most of the bass on Let There Be Rock.’ Did George really change the working habit of his entire recording career with AC/DC and fail to record a single bass track on the band’s most important album to that point, at a time when Williams, despite his best efforts, was having trouble getting his work visa?With George on bass in the studio, and AC/DC firing as a band, only a fool wouldn’t have hit the RECORD switch.Mark Opitz says the whole thing is a nonsense: ‘What a load of bullshit; the photos are from rehearsals. I recorded the album with Vanda & Young producing and Cliff played bass, end of story.'Former Angels bass player James Morley, who plays rhythm guitar in Bon But Not Forgotten with Mark Evans today, insists George played every song on the album bar ‘Rock 'N' Roll Damnation':‘It's George. Except “Damnation".'Meanwhile, O'Rourke, who took the famous photos, says, ‘The photos speak for themselves. I had the pleasure of being invited into the sessions by George while AC/DC were writing and recording the album. Bon would be in the writer's room in Alberts and come in every so often with lyrics to try on the songs. Simply amazing to be there!'Whatever the truth, we were left with AC/DC's greatest album.

In Australian rock's golden period of the late 1970s and early '80s, Grahame ‘Yogi’ Harrison was a busy man: working as a sound engineer for legendary local bands Rose Tattoo, Buffalo and, famously in 1977, AC/DC at The Haymarket in Sydney. It's one of the best bootleg recordings of AC/DC from that era.‘That [gig] was done while we actually took a break from recording Let There Be Rock,’ former AC/DC bass player Mark Evans told me in an interview for my first book on the band, The Youngs. ‘We were in the studio and we went down and we only had to go like 300 yards down the road from [Alberts Studios in] King Street to the gig. It was a great gig.’

In 1978, Harrison would go on to spend quite a bit of time at Alberts with the Tatts, who were produced by George Young and Harry Vanda. Harrison has strong opinions.‘I am from the politically incorrect department,’ he says. ‘I don’t care who I offend. I simply tell the truth as I remember it.’His memories of that time are a refreshing counterpoint to the usual AC/DC hagiography. Far from bursting out of the blocks under George’s tutelage, AC/DC’s beginnings were difficult.‘AC/DC were laughedat in Sydney and left for Melbourne with their tails between their legs. I was good mates with [late AC/DC bass player] Neil Smith & knew [former AC/DC drummer] Noel Taylor as well. Phil Rudd is not one of my favourite people. ​

'AC/DC was a totally confused band at the start'

​‘[Phil] knew that [Angus Young's] bigger brother ran the band and his bigger brother actually asked [Angus] to join the band. Angus wasn’t the original choice [for guitarist]. I think Angus has always had that underlying jealousy. My knowledge of those times is there had been other players before Malcolm [Young] finally gave Angus a shot at the gig. My strongest memory is that Angus was not the original choice for guitar player in the original concept in Malcolm’s head, which may not have even been called AC/DC at that time.’​‘AC/DC were laughed at in Sydney and left for Melbourne with their tails between their legs.'– Grahame Harrison

Harrison says the real reason AC/DC moved to Melbourne from Sydney was that they were ‘fairly a non-entity’ on the city’s live scene.‘Sydney didn’t want to know, wasn’t interested. AC/DC was a totally confused band at the start. Despite all the affirmations put forward by the Young brothers that, “Oh, we always knew what we were doing, we knew where we were going, right from the start we had a master plan, we weren’t going to deviate from that, blah blah blah”, all they really are is a total extension of The Easybeats.

A less confused AC/DC... with Bon Scott

​‘There was nothing really going on [musically], but George insisted on keeping it simple, because the “KISS” principle has always worked in the rock ’n’ roll business… just go for the lowest common denominator and see what you pick up along the way. I don’t think AC/DC really had any kind of an idea there.’But when Bon came in, all that changed.

One of the true pleasures of writing a biography of Bon Scott is watching hours of Bon Scott videos on YouTube. On the evidence of his body of celluloid work, Bon was deeply charismatic, had a winning smile, a devilish wink and was an incredible live performer.Sadly, for someone who left an indelible mark on rock music in such a short space of time, there isn't a hell of a lot of footage of Bon performing with AC/DC in those golden years of 1977–80, the focus of Bon: The Last Highway, so what is available tends to get recycled ad nauseam on social media. Finding anything new is like hitting gold, but from time to time nuggets do appear on YouTube, like the footage from Fresno, California, in 1979.So much has been written about Bon the singer. But Bon was a great mover in the mould of one of his idols, Easybeats singer Stevie Wright. Bouncing around the stage. Shaking his head. Completely immersed in the rhythm. Bon not only lived his lyrics he lived the performance.

​Malcolm Young once said: ‘Bon’s the rocker’ with his ‘slicked back styles’ and ‘teddy boy looks’. Angus Young said he’d got a move called the ‘human kangaroo’ from Bon: ‘It’s a trick he sometimes pulls coming into hotels; [he takes] all his clothes off. Well what I do, I get on stage and get all me [sic] clothes off, you know, and, uh, just hop backwards, you know, like a kangaroo.’

‘He was so good that I admired him. It's funny because I pinched a lot off Bon.'– Stevie Wright

Anyone who was lucky enough to see Bon live was treated to one of the great athletes/character actors of rock 'n' roll: a human squall of comedy, menace, tongue licks, hand claps, deft dodges and head flicks. The sweat beads on his body. Intercostal muscles as defined as any wannabe prize fighter. The exhaustion he wore on his face.Unlike the tireless Angus, who more or less hurled himself with abandon about the confines of the stage and literally into the audience – pretty much the same routine each show – Bon had a thespian’s craft and subtlety. It was true dramatic performance.

In fact, Bon was so good when I spoke to the late Wright in 2013 for my first book about AC/DC, The Youngs, he claimed he’d been asked to replace Bon and freely admitted he’d stolen moves from him: ‘He was so good that I admired him. It’s funny because I pinched a lot off Bon.’I've compiled below a list of what's known to exist from that 1977–80 period, and embedded some gems, so you can enjoy watching Bon while reading the book.

AC/DC: Let There Be Rock (1980)Filmed live in Paris, 1979. Directors: Eric Dionysius & Eric Mistler. Re-released on DVD in 2011 ‘Live Wire’‘Shot Down In Flames’‘Hell Ain’t A Bad Place To Be’‘Sin City’‘Walk All Over You’‘Bad Boy Boogie’‘The Jack’‘Highway To Hell’‘Girls Got Rhythm’‘High Voltage’‘Whole Lotta Rosie’‘Rocker’‘Let There Be Rock’

SCOTT KEMPNER of New York bands The Dictators and The Del-Lords has some great insights and anecdotes about Bon Scott, which you can read in the book when it’s released this November. But I’m going to share here some of his very interesting views about AC/DC: the personality dynamics inside it and its work ethic.​The Dictators played several dates on the road in America with AC/DC between 1977 and 1978, but their association is most significant because they headlined AC/DC on the occasion of the Australian band’s first New York City show: 24 August 1977 at The Palladium (you can listen to the bootleg of AC/DC's set in the YouTube clip below).

‘I first heard AC/DC on the road,’ he recalls. ‘Our late great drummer, Richie Teeter, had cassettes of those first few albums that, at the time, were not released here in the States. It instantly caught my ear. Richie told me who they were, and how the older brother [George Young] of the guitar players had been in The Easybeats, and had co-written the awesome ‘Friday On My Mind’, one of the greatest records of the ’60s.‘We played with them several times. A few times it was us, AC/DC and Thin Lizzy, and a few bills were with Cheap Trick… over time, as their songs got better, the middle matched the quality and power of the songs that bookended their shows, and they were one of the very greatest rock ’n’ roll bands in the world. ​‘Verse, chorus, chorus, solo, hook – lots of hooks – verse, chorus, out! Classic. The sonics might have been more hard rock than pop, but underneath there were the same sharp writing and arranging skills hard at work.’

AC/DC, 1977

‘Malcolm Young was the engine [of the band]. It was his basic idea, and he was the one who knew if something was right for the band, or if it wasn’t. One day Angus Young told me, “Ya know, my brother’s really the better guitar player – but it interferes with his drinking!”‘As for the New York City show, I do not remember having anything but us and our audience having the usual frenzied rock ’n’ roll experience. The place went nuts for us from the opening chord, and it stayed that way (check out rare silent Super-8 footage of Bon and the band filmed on the night in the YouTube clip below).

‘AC/DC were the opener with Michael Stanley Band in the middle. AC/DC did well – I do remember that. They rocked, and the audience was in the mood for exactly that. I remember that after their set, they walked down The Bowery to CBGB, where they proceeded to rock the hell out of that place, too. Yes, the same night!‘The only New York City show of theirs I ever saw was the one with us, and our audience was a good stylistic fit for them, too. So, that New York City audience at least, loved them. [AC/DC] were, and are, very easy to like. We did not get to socialise much with them outside of the venues. We chatted plenty, though, on show days, as we were in close proximity of each other for several hours a day several days a week, for a few weeks. Very friendly – as you might think. The Dictators were very friendly sorts, as well. We had no attitude. Well, we did, but not towards other musicians.

Clipping via AC/DC Bootlegs acdc-bootlegs.com

‘One thing I will always remember about those few weeks we were out together, there was a live review about AC/DC in NME or Sounds, one of those British music papers. In it, there was a quote from Malcolm. He had been asked by the interviewer if he had seen any other good bands while in America. He said, “The only American band we saw that works hard for their money is The Dictators!”(The actual quote, made to Sounds magazine’s Phil Sutcliffe, was: ‘The Dictators were the only band we saw really working.’)‘Knowing their work ethic and working class identification, I knew Malcolm meant it as a strong compliment, and that’s how we took it. They wanted us to come open their upcoming Australian tour but instead our label dropped us. Too bad about that one.’